Beware the Traditionalist School, the Esoteric Sect that Uses Anti-Marxism to Promote Religious Syncretism and the Personality Cult of Its Leaders

By Julio Severo

When Christians hear of Traditionalists they think in terms of Christians guarding their traditions, or cultural customs of guarding traditions. Very few people know that there is a spiritualist or esoteric sect devoted to political ambitions also engaged in traditionalism. This sect is called the Traditionalist School.

Members of the Traditionalist School, including Steve Bannon and Olavo de Carvalho, in New York in 2019

A group of traditionalists met in New York in 2019 and a Jewish scholar sought to understand the influence of this sect.

Benjamin Teitelbaum, the Jewish scholar, posed a question to these traditionalists, including Steve Bannon and Olavo de Carvalho, a self-exiled Brazilian immigrant in the U.S.

According to the University of Colorado Boulder,

“Are you a Traditionalist?” he asked, referring to a little-known spiritual sect rooted in notions that time is cyclical, the “dark age” is upon us, and Aryan males inhabit the top of an ancient cosmic hierarchy.

That simple question kick-started a year-long odyssey in which Teitelbaum, an ethnomusicologist-turned-alt-right scholar, recorded more than 20 hours of taped interviews with Bannon and traveled the globe getting to know his Traditionalist contemporaries.

The resulting new book, War For Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers, out this week, sheds light on a bizarre ultraconservative ideology shared by advisors to populist leaders in Brazil, Russia and Hungary—and the surprising political power they may be wielding.

Teitelbaum’s interest in the Traditionalist School began after he read press reports in 2016 suggesting that Bannon, then chief strategist to President Donald Trump, was reading the works of Traditionalist writer Julius Evola. Since then, Trump expelled Bannon from the White House for opportunism and for leaking confidential information to the press.

According to the University of Colorado Boulder,

Teitelbaum defines Traditionalism as “a bizarre underground and philosophical school with an eclectic if miniscule following.” It hinges on philosophical truths that borrow from many faiths, from Hinduism and Zoroastrianism to the pre-Christian pagan religions of Europe.

Teitelbaum said that different schools of Traditionalists share different beliefs, but many agree on one key themes: “modernism” — especially Marxism — must go in order for the spiritual advance of humanity to occur. This spiritual advance is a mixture involving many faiths, especially Catholicism and Islam.

According to the University of Colorado Boulder,

Through exclusive interviews in esoteric salons and secret meetings with far-right thinkers from rural Virginia [where Olavo de Carvalho lives] to Budapest, Teitelbaum makes the case that this obscure worldview is having a notable impact on global politics today.

He notes that Aleksandr Dugin, who is heavily influenced by Traditionalist works, has had the ear of the Kremlin and Olavo de Carvalho, another Traditionalist thinker, serves as an advisor to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Even though it is undeniable that Dugin and Carvalho have the same esoteric roots and both are members of the Traditionalist School, I do not know if Teitelbaum’s assessment of Dugin having in the Russian government the same influence Carvalho has in the Brazilian government is correct.

Traditionalists are narcissist and megalomaniac and use any event to promote the cult of their personality. In 2019, CPAC held in Brazil its first event and Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, used the event to promote the cult of Carvalho’s personality. Before this event, the Brazilian president granted Carvalho the highest award of the Brazilian government.

Carvalho, who is Bolsonaro’s special adviser, keeps him and his sons under his esoteric spell.

Even though Dugin is the Russian Carvalho, there is no sign that he keeps the Russian government under the same spell. At least, I can speak of my experience. In 2014, I attended at the Kremlin the greatest conservative conference in Russia. I was with American Jews, Catholics and Protestants, especially from the World Congress of Families. Dugin was not a speaker and he did not even attend the event. No Russian speaker mentioned his name.

There is no news that Dugin has ever received the highest award from the Russian government. Surely, the ideas and movement of Dugin, inspired in the Islamic occultist René Guénon, are a political and spiritual threat, but he was not able so far to achieve the massive influence Carvalho did in the Bolsonaro administration.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin treats Dugin the same way Bolsonaro has treated Carvalho, sooner or later he will see Russia sunk in the same confusions Brazil is facing.

If Dugin had the same spell Carvalho has in Brazil, the greatest conservative conference in Russia, attended by me, would have had the same cult of Dugin’s personality that happened at the CAPC, the greatest conservative conference in Brazil, which Eduardo Bolsonaro used to promote the cult of Carvalho’s personality. In fact, Bolsonaro funded such private event with over $1,200,000 in Brazilian currency directly from the pockets of the Brazilian taxpayers, and such move should have been condemned as unethical because real conservatives do not sacrifice taxpayers to fund their private events. Only socialists do such tax exploitation.

My take is that Russia, the largest Orthodox Christian nation in the world, will fall prey to Dugin or other member of the Traditionalist School, because Orthodox Christians are not much different from Catholics. Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world, has already fallen prey to the Traditionalist School through Carvalho.

The U.S., which still maintains a majority of evangelicals in its Christian population, has successfully escaped the traps of the Traditionalist School and its anti-Marxist appeal. Trump expelled Bannon from the White House and surrounded himself with evangelicals.

If Bolsonaro, in the same way, expels his Traditionalist advisers, especially Carvalho, and surrounds himself with evangelicals, there will be hope for Brazil. Putin and Orthodox Christians are not spiritually prepared to avoid in Russia the same bad experience from the Traditionalist School that Catholic Brazil has embraced and that Protestant America has rejected.

The tragedy in Brazil is that Bolsonaro was elected especially by evangelicals, but after election, he chose to fill his administration with Traditionalists connected to Carvalho. That is, evangelicals were politically exploited by Bolsonaro, who now uses the Brazilian government to promote Traditionalism and its adherents. They did not have enough power to elect themselves. So they exploited evangelicals with a conservative speech, but now they promote a larger agenda involving issues not familiar to many people.

According to the University of Colorado Boulder,

“Some of these actors [Bannon, Dugin, Carvalho] who are trying to shape the future of our society are thinking in terms that are so foreign to most educated, thoughtful and engaged people,” he said. “It is time we start paying attention.”

Teitelbaum is right. Most people, even “most educated, thoughtful and engaged people,” are unable to understand the strange and mysterious esoteric sect of the Traditionalist School. American leaders of CAPC who attended the tax-funded Brazilian CAPC were unable to understand that they were used to promote a member of the Traditionalist School and that virtually all the Brazilian speakers at the CAPC Brazil were not representative of the Brazilian conservative movement. They were directly connected to Carvalho. So Traditionalism has in Brazil, as in no other nation, a upper hand, even against real conservatives.

No nation has been so duped and victimized by Traditionalists as Brazil has been — perhaps only Italy under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, whose adviser and guru was right-wing philosopher Julius Evola, the most prominent disciple of Guénon and the most prominent member of the Traditionalist School. Evola wrote several books against Marxism.

Bannon, Dugin and Carvalho were heavily influenced by Guénon and his esoteric ideas.

Even though Carvalho brags that he had been forming an army of anti-Marxist intellectuals since the 1980s, through investigation Teitelbaum found that Carvalho was involved in an occult Islamic tariqa in the U.S. in the 1980s. This tariqa was involved in sexual scandals. Teitelbaum only did not investigate how Carvalho cheated the U.S. immigration to get a visa as a correspondent from a small Brazilian newspaper that could not afford an international correspondent.

I agree with Teitelbaum: It is time we start paying attention to the spiritualist sect of the Traditionalist School and its members who lure and hijack conservative movements and influence presidents — from Mussolini to Bolsonaro.

With information from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Portuguese version of this article: Cuidado com a Escola Tradicionalista, a seita esotérica que usa o antimarxismo para promover o sincretismo religioso e o culto à personalidade de seus líderes

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Olavo de Carvalho says, including other institutions, that “every evil that happens in Brazil comes from Evangelical churches,” which he equated with the Communist Party

The Atlantic Introduces the Intellectual and Spiritual Founder of Brazil’s Esoteric Far Right

Steve Bannon and Olavo de Carvalho Together: Two Occultists Promoting an Occult “Conservatism”

Steve Bannon’s Occult Movement, Brazil and Conservative Evangelicals

Astrologer Olavo de Carvalho calls for Brazilian Federal Police to investigate Julio Severo on the allegation that accusations against him involving the Inquisition and occultism are collusions paid by the Russian government that threaten the Brazilian national security

How the Powerful Union of Trump with Evangelicals Saved the U.S. from Steve Bannon and His Occult Plan of a “Traditionalist” Government

Guenonian Influence in Brazil’s Bolsonaro Administration

Recognizing Rightly Rev. Moon and His Former Personality Cult Among U.S. Conservatives, But Not Seeing Another Blatant, Emerging Messiah

By Julio Severo

How can the U.S. conservative movement be prone to false messiahs? In fact, how can a man very familiar with the influence of a false messiah among U.S. conservatives have no vision to see another messiah emerging with opportunistic and occultist ambitions among Catholic and Protestant conservatives?

Several years ago, I had long chats with a troubled Protestant who told me how the evangelical conservative movement in the U.S. was apostate and the evidence was the influence of Rev. Moon, a blatant false messiah, among them, especially because of his financial power and resources funding and “helping” them.

In fact, Rev. Moon’s influence was so incontestable that the largest conservative newspaper in America, the Washington Times, was in his hands.

Rev. Moon

The troubled Protestant, who is a fellow of the Inter-American Institute (IAI), was right. According to his own words in the chats, he was instrumental in the founding of IAI and in inviting and bringing fine minds to IAI.

IAI’s influential man is John Haskins.

Yet, his vision, which was so sharp regarding “apostate” evangelical leaders receiving money from the false messiah, was myopic regarding IAI’s internal affairs and reality.

IAI director, Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho, is hardly surpassed by Rev. Moon as far as esotericism, occultism and megalomaniac messianism are concerned.

Carvalho founded in Brazil the first school of astrologers some 30 years ago. A Carvalho’s interview with Globo, the main news conglomerate in Brazil, published in May, 25, 2000, titled “A Casual Philosopher” said of him:

“For a time, [Olavo de Carvalho] devoted himself to Islamic studies — learned Arabic and recites the Koran passages — and won an award in Saudi Arabia in 1985 for a 200-page book (unpublished) about Muhammad, wherein he used knowledge of medieval symbolics to interpret episodes from the life of the prophet. He practices Christianity, but he says he would be comfortable to profess Islam. This is because, in his view, Christianity, Islam and Judaism have basically the same goal. The existence of God is to Olavo the supreme obviousness, the founding basis of everything.”

The interview was kept for 17 years in Carvalho’s personal website but was immediately removed after the publication of my article “What Draws Olavo de Carvalho to the United States?”

Today, Carvalho brazenly says in Portuguese: “Protestantism was born from hatred and blood thirst. Its Christian inspiration is ZERO.”

Nevertheless, IAI Protestant members cannot read and understand his nonsense and even foul language, because he expresses them only in Portuguese.

His anti-Protestant diatribe is brazen for his ingratitude. Even labeling himself a “Catholic” (who would be comfortable to profess Islam), he did not want to stay in Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world. Instead, he chose self-exile, living as an immigrant in the largest Protestant nation in the world, even though he despises Protestantism. His blatant inconsistency led me to write: “What Draws Olavo de Carvalho to the United States?”

As to Haskins, his troubled soul sees U.S. evangelical churches as “apostate” but is unable to see similar spiritual deceitfulness and dishonesty in the Brazilian self-exiled immigrant he chose to head IAI.

Why is not he able to see in Carvalho the same spiritual fraudulence he rightly saw in Rev. Moon and his conservative movement in America?

Has Carvalho funded him as Rev. Moon allegedly, according to Haskins’s words, funded U.S. evangelical leaders? Has Carvalho bought his silence?

Haskins knows that Carvalho is wrong on important issues. In 2013, when Carvalho began to revile me and attack me because I disagreed with him over his strident advocacy of the Inquisition’s revisionism, Haskins, who also silently disagreed with Carvalho on this issue, magnificently helped me write an article titled “Can a Pro-Life Activist Defend The Inquisition?” Many ideas in the article, including a comparison between the abortion industry and the Inquisition, came directly from Haskins, who nevertheless did not want to be credited for his extraordinary ideas. He preferred anonymity.

Carvalho is not a lesser bragging megalomaniac than Rev. Moon was, especially as far as an exotic conservatism is concerned. Carvalho’s alleged “anti-communism” came from what he learned in the Traditionalist School, which fused anti-Marxism conservatism with New Age ideas. The Traditionalist School was founded by the Islamic esotericist René Guénon, and Carvalho was one of the main introducers of this sorcerer and his New Age ideas in Brazil. Besides, he translated into Portuguese one of Guénon’s books.

Carvalho’s spirituality is syncretic, as syncretic are usually Catholics in Brazil. This is why spiritualism, esotericism, astrology, New Age ideas and Afro-Brazilian religions similar to voodoo are so popular among Brazilian Catholics. Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian esoteric writer, has books published by HarperCollins, the biggest publishing house in the United States, and among his admirers are Will Smith, Madonna and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Brazil is deeply esoteric and spiritualist and in this reality Coelho is just a mystic “Catholic.” Even though he is not as popular as Coelho, is it a wonder Carvalho’s considerable popularity among syncretic right-wing Catholics in Brazil?

But not only syncretic Catholics have been affected by his ideas. Fábio Blanco, one of the most passionate evangelical followers of Carvalho, even calling him a “father” in the Father’s Day, produced two revealing texts on May 2017. In one, titled “The Scientist and The Occultist,” he said, “The occultist is just a scientist.” In another, titled “Esotericism and Reformed Principles,” he complained, “In the Protestant view, there is just a simple division: believers and non-believers. To address esotericism, in this context, is impossible.”

In his search for conservative knowledge, he was engulfed by a seductive gnosis that drew him always from the Bible knowledge and the genuine conservatism the Bible produces in its readers.

Carvalho’s “philosophical” influence exhales esotericism on his Catholic and Protestant followers, drawing them away from the Bible and bringing them more and more to him and his gnostic ideas.

How cannot Haskins discern such influence?

Haskins is a very intelligent man and he has invaluable insights but his misguided vision, perhaps impaired by mysterious interests, has hindered him from seeing in Carvalho the same opportunistic and spiritually harmful conservatism he sees in Rev. Moon.

Yet, if he can accept Carvalho with his occult, mysterious and suspicious background, why cannot he accept Pat Robertson, Matt Barber, Scott Lively and other fine evangelical leaders? They are not apostate.

If he is able to see the damaging nature of Rev. Moon’s anticommunist messianism, why cannot he see the damaging nature of Carvalho’s anticommunist messianism? After all, he is not so smart as he imagines to be.

A self-professing Christian who does not see Carvalho’s spiritually syncretic, occult and damaging “conservatism” may be in a serious state of apostasy and, certainly, his spiritual vision is impaired.

If Robertson, Barber, Lively and other U.S. evangelical leaders are in an apostate pit, where is Carvalho? Where is Haskins?

Jesus said,

“You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” (Matthew 23:24 ESV)

Haskins has been straining out U.S. evangelical “gnats” and swallowing a Brazilian esoteric camel!

If, as Haskins believes, Rev. Moon’s influence on the U.S. conservative movement was damaging, what kind of influence does he think Carvalho has had on the Catholic conservative movement in Brazil?

How to explain that the man who is right on the false messiah in America has chosen not to see the exotic conservative messianism in a pseudo-Catholic self-exiled immigrant from Brazil?

If Carvalho’s influence on Catholic Brazilians is harmful, why has Haskins been working to extend it in America?

Recently, Carvalho launched a Brazilian movie, titled “The Garden of Afflictions,” exalting himself — a personality cult that is a typical behavior of Marxists and false messiahs as Rev. Moon, who was as conservative and anti-communist as Carvalho alleges to be. Knowingly or not, Haskins has worked to extend this Brazilian version of personality cult to America by propagandizing IAI.

The movie was directed by Josias Teófilo, whose main occupation was to lecture in theosophical lodges in several Brazilian cities. In 2014, in a speech at the Sírius Theosophical Lodge in Campina Grande, he spoke about the importance of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s spiritualist vision. Blavatsky, a pioneer in the New Age movement and the co-founder of the Theosophical Society in 1875, was an occultist, spirit medium. So no one better than Teófilo, an esotericist, to introduce another esotericist, Carvalho.

The movie was produced thanks to the donations of Carvalho’s followers, who follow him just as Moonies follow Rev. Moon and do whatever he commands them. By the way, one of the most prominent Brazilian Moonies was José Osvaldo de Meira Penna, who was profoundly connected to Carvalho.

Carvalho’s daughter Heloisa De Carvalho Martin Arribas has publicly exposed, on a June 27, 2017 Facebook post, that there was no accountability for the donations, adding that “he who takes money from honest people and deceives them is in the least a swindler.”

Not much different from the past. Students in the old school of astrologers sued their teacher, Carvalho, for swindle.

Not much different from Rev. Moon, who also was sued for swindle.

Carvalho’s daughter confirmed, in a Facebook post, that the movement of her father is similar to Rev. Moon’s movement.

Evidently, Carvalho is not as famous, in the U.S. and internationally, as Rev. Moon is. But what is Haskins waiting to see in him the same fraudulence and personality cult he sees in Rev. Moon?

If the new messiah becomes famous in the U.S., it will be by the virtue of IAI and Haskins.

Yet, an awareness effort can help. About ten years ago, I launched a successful campaign in Brazil about Rev. Moon’s harmful influence among evangelical conservative leaders, even in the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus. Many evangelicals were warned.

I had also been invited by Moonies to be a part of their movement, with tempting offers, and their special temptation was an official invitation for me to write in the Washington Times. I refused the invitations, because I cannot work for false messiahs.

May my new awareness effort, about an emerging messiah, be helpful to evangelicals in Brazil.

Read also “Olavo de Carvalho” in Conservapedia.

Updated on September 28, 2017.

Portuguese version of this article: Reconhecendo acertadamente o Rev. Moon e seu ex-culto à personalidade entre conservadores americanos, mas não vendo outro messias descarado emergindo

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

What Draws Olavo de Carvalho to the United States?

Olavo de Carvalho Praises Socialist Militant and Says He Would Even Work with Satan for Brazil

Olavo de Carvalho and the Inquisition

A Brazilian Neocon?

Why Call Names? An Answer to Olavo de Carvalho

Homeschooling in Brazil: Where Is it Headed?

Olavo de Carvalho and His Nonsense on Trump and Russia

Olavo de Carvalho’s 2017 Premiere “The Garden of Afflictions,” a New Age Movie